Jim O'Donnell: Nantz and Romo are nice Lambeau dressing for Bears' low-impact bowl game
THE NEW YEAR FOR THE BEARS officially begins when the scoreboard clock strikes a final 00:00 at Lambeau Field this afternoon.
All else has been New Year's Eve.
The game must mean something. CBS will have Jim Nantz and Tony Romo in attendance. They haven't called a Sunday 3:25 p.m. kickoff involving the Bears since October 2021. That was not a pretty day for the burnt orange and blue.
Tom Brady threw four TD passes for host Tampa Bay – in the first half.
Rookie Justin Fields went through a brutal rite of passage. Trying to run a Matt Nagy / Bill Lazor offense behind a pitifully porous line, he sailed three interceptions and lost two fumbles.
The Buccaneers breezed 38-3.
So Nantz and Romo aren't quite late-afternoon lucky charms for the Bears.
THAT'S A NOTABLE MARKER because so much of Betting Beardom appears to think Chicago +3 is such a lock 'n a shoo today.
That popular impulse goes against so many cursory metrics. Among them:
--- The Bears are 0-5 in daytime road games this season;
--- They are 2-12 at Lambeau Field since 2008;
--- In his last 7 games, Jordan Love has thrown 16 TDs with 1 interception. In his last septet, Fields has 5 TDs with 4 interceptions.
ADDUCTION BASED ON THOSE simple numbers:
The Bears have small margin for errors against an equally developing young team with vastly more motivation to win.
For Chicago, today's exhibition is a nice low-impact bowl game, like the Duke's Mayo or the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe.
For 31 months as a Chicago Bear, Justin Fields has shown nothing but courage, character and a keen sense of teamsmanship.
Some magic NFL numbers this afternoon are going to change any of that?
MONDAY, THE HEAVY SIFTING begins at Halas Hall.
Today is just another visitor's crawl into a Lombardi dusk.
With some kind of new Bears era about to be rung in.
STREET-BEATIN':
When Jeff Driskel opens at quarterback for the flaps-down Browns today vs. the Bengals, he'll be Cleveland's fifth starting QB of the season. That'll tie an NFL record set by Mike Ditka's 1984 Bears. That mixed bunch (no peeking): Jim McMahon, Steve Fuller, Bob Avellini, Rusty Lisch and Greg Landry. (Joe Flacco is sitting for the Browns in anticipation of their wild-card game next weekend.)…
Bigger bettors are favoring Michigan (minus-4 ½) over Washington in Monday's CFP championship game (6:30 p.m., ESPN). Better props: Will Jim Harbaugh be suspended again before halftime (+550)? How many times will Kirk Herbstreit reference “eye discipline?” (The over / under on that one is 5 ½.) …
Yet another rough Nielsen Audio report for Chicago's listing sports talk stations: WSCR-AM (670) was tied for 13th while WMVP-AM (1000) lagged in 20th. Together, they're not getting 1 in 10 males in their target 25-to-54 demo. “The Score” has lost 25% of its audience since September; “ESPN-1000,” despite its first-year status as Bears flagship, was off 17% from November. (Keke Palmer might suggest that the programming “Password” is: “futile.”) ...
A more positive droplet from AM-1000: Today's Bears-Packers broadcast will mark the end of Tom Thayer's 27 th season as radio analyst and No. 23 for Jeff Joniak as play-by-play voice. Thayer has already passed Irv Kupcinet's mythic 24 years (1953-76). Joniak will pull even with Jack Brickhouse next winter. Statistician Doug Colletti predates both: He entered the booth in 1986 when Wayne Larrivee, Jim Hart and Dick Butkus were Dan Fabian's A-team on WGN-AM (720). …
Funeral services for Joey Meyer were held Thursday at St. Vincent DePaul church on the edge of the university's North Side campus. Son Brian Meyer was principal eulogist. He gave up a promising start in basketball ops with the Bulls to move into management with the fabled Leo Burnett ad agency. …
ABC added new dimension to the idea of TV as “a vast wasteland” when it aired the Bulls-Knicks game in prime-time Wednesday night. A “Golden Bachelor” highlights special hosted by Paige Spiranac and Dr. Oz would have been more entertaining. Starched-collar analyst J.J. Redick makes Doris Burke seem like Dick Vitale. …
And Phil Mushnick, after the Grambling women's basketball team beat the College of Biblical Studies, 159-18: “Maybe it was a 'look-ahead game' for the Biblical Studies women.”
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.